Artist:The First ClassSong:Beach Baby
Album:WSNI-FM Sunny 104.5 Presents Summer Fun
I'm sure there are those who think that the 1974 top five hit Beach Baby is a long lost Beach Boys song. But no, The First Class was a recording studio creation from British guys who had a long history of creating pop hits anonymously. The man behind The First Class was producer John Carter and the lead singer was Tony Burrows. Carter wrote Beach Baby with wife Gillian Shakespeare. Carter and his partner Ken Lewis had some success in England with The Ivy League in 1965. He sang lead on The New Vaudeville Band hit Winchester Cathedral and also wrote The Music Explosion Hit Little Bit O' Soul and was behind The Flower Pot Men. Tony Burrows took over as lead singer of The Ivy League when Carter didn't want to perform anymore. He was also lead singer of The Flower Pot Men and sang lead on Edison Lighthouse's Love Grows, White Plains' My Baby Loves Lovin' and The Brotherhood Of Man's United We Stand. And he performed all three of those songs on a 1970 episode of Top Of The Pops. The First Class was Carter's tribute to The Beach Boys. It was not a real group and Carter and Burrows had no plans to tour as The First Class. But when Beach Baby became a surprise hit and reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, background singer Chas Mills put an actual group together to tour. None of the musicians in the touring band played on the record though that is Tony Burrows singing on the video clip. You can get Beach Baby on this budget various artists comp from Collectables. Not surprisingly, The First Class didn't last very long. They only recorded two albums. John Carter has had a long jingle writing career and Tony Burrows still does sessions. Here's The First Class performing Beach Baby on the TV show Disco.
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